Missing link: Rural communities still waiting for high-speed Internet

Chronicle/Cory MorseJim Dordray, owner of the White River RV Park and Campground in Blu Lake Township, has spent up to $7,000 to provide wireless Internet service for his campers. Provider Arialink, which received a $2.2. million state grant to provide service to rural communities in Muskegon County, is two years behind schedule. Cordray said he is frustrated he can't provide a better internet connection for his campers.

When Gwen Hoffman learned a tower that would transmit high-speed Internet would be located across the street from her rural home, the Blue Lake Township woman thought that finally she would escape her slow dial-up service.

"I was so excited because I'm the closest one," Hoffman said, referring to the tower that Arialink erected behind the township hall. "I thought 'This is neat. I'm right across the street.'"

But like hundreds, perhaps thousands, of residents throughout Muskegon County who desperately want high-speed Internet, Hoffman's excitement has soured. When Muskegon County and the state of Michigan awarded a $2.2 million grant to Arialink in 2005, the promise was that nearly 7,000 households in targeted areas unserved by broadband service would be able to sign up for the $18.99-per-month wireless service by the fall of 2006.

Better yet, the entire county would be able to connect by this past summer, or so the story went.

But two years after they were supposed to be hooked up, many residents in the five communities at whom the grant was targeted have yet to get the Internet service, never mind the rest of the county.

Chronicle/Cory MorseCampers can't rely on the Wi-Fi service because weather affects the satellite service. Also, heavy Internet traffic can slow down or or crash the service.

Residents have been told they won't get the service because trees are in the way, while others have experienced so many delays they've given up.

Arialink Vice President Raymond Signs said he understands their frustrations. Arialink already has spent the $2.2 million, much of it on infrastructure that Signs said didn't meet vendors' claims, and he asked that the community continue to be patient while the company restructures its finances.

Arialink is still trying to get equipment that will emit signals that penetrate trees, and is hoping to add staff to get more people hooked up.

"There are people frustrated and we have not held up to the schedule we have provided," Signs admitted. "We have no intent of abandoning any of our plans in Muskegon."

Hoffman said she eagerly called to sign up for service in March, finally got a technician to visit in July and was told that although she has a tower in her yard on which a receiver could be attached -- in addition to being across the street from the transmitting tower -- she wasn't a candidate for the low-cost, government-subsidized service.

"The (technician) got out of the truck and looked around. I showed him where the DIRECTV (dish) is up on a tower. I also do have an antenna on my house," Hoffman said. "He said, 'I can't see the (transmitting) tower from here. You're buried in trees. It's not going to work.'

"And so he left."

'Late and overdue'

Arialink received $2.2 million from the "Digital Divide Investment Program," which used federal Community Development Block Grant money. Muskegon County was part of a two-county pilot project to bring high-speed Internet to low- and moderate-income communities in Muskegon and Marquette counties.

Arialink, based in Lansing, also received a $2.1 million loan to help it install the infrastructure needed to bring the service to Muskegon County.

Arialink was among five companies that bid for the Digital Divide grant in Muskegon County, which was open to companies that could provide Internet service through cable TV lines, telephone lines or satellite technology. In other words, the winner was to provide service with whatever technology would work -- even in heavily-wooded areas.

According to the request for proposals, the winning vendor would be chosen based on user charges, "estimated quality of service," project feasibility, its marketing plan for targeted households and total project investment.

The grant was targeted at the townships of Holton, Cedar Creek, Egelston and Moorland as well as the Village of Lakewood Club, though the request for proposals clearly stated the expectation that the entire county eventually would be served.

Officials from Muskegon County and the Michigan Broadband Development Authority selected Arialink for the program. The county continues to manage the contract with Arialink, though the development authority has subsequently been dismantled and the Michigan Economic Development Corp. has picked up the program.

Eduardo Bedoya, information systems manager for the county, said he is not satisfied with Arialink's performance so far, and that the company probably was "overoptimistic" in the first place.

"The project is three years in -- it's late and it's overdue," Bedoya said. "Obviously we are disappointed in that. But we have no control over a private company."

Chronicle/Cory MorseStephanie Haag uses her computer inside her RV at White River RV Park and Campground in Blue Lake Township. Haag, a retiree who sold her home and enjoys her freedom by traveling in her RV across the country, said having Internet service at campgrounds is crucial. "It's absolutely important, that's how I keep in contact with people," she said.

In essence, the state controlled the purse strings, and Bedoya said he feels caught between it and Arialink. The state has granted Arialink extensions in its contract, decisions the county had no control over, Bedoya said.

Bedoya said his biggest complaint against Arialink is its failure to communicate with residents who are becoming "very impatient."

"Where they have lacked is in letting people know exactly what's going on," Bedoya said. "That's where I find fault with them."

Signs said Muskegon County's is not the only project to install wireless Internet that has struggled. Others across the country have failed completely, much of it because of technology that didn't meet expectations, he said.

"Our company is proud of what we've accomplished to this date," Signs said. "We feel like we're the last one standing and we've held up fairly strongly."

But he said the company has the same financial and credit issues that others are having in the current economy and the company's finances are being restructured. Part of that is expanding the company's offerings to include TV and phone service along with Internet, he said.

He said Arialink has even explored with the county hiking the price of its Internet service "by a couple bucks" for residents outside the targeted areas, but said that's unlikely to happen.

'Sold a bill of goods'

In Cedar Creek Township, residents feel like they were "sold a bill of goods," said Township Supervisor Jim Muston.

A tower was erected on township property -- with Arialink so far failing to pay the negotiated $300-per-month lease fee -- but it hasn't been able to transmit Internet to many homes, even those within a couple blocks, Muston said. Residents have been told Arialink won't hook up any more homes because they don't have the equipment, he said.

"A couple (residents) have told them to 'Keep your business. ... We're not going to monkey around any longer,'" he said.

"They came and made a good play to the township to make it sound like they were the best thing to hit the area, and now they can't follow through with it," Muston said.

Mickey Noble, supervisor of Holton Township, said some residents have the service and seem happy with it.

"We have others that for whatever reason have made contacts with (Arialink) and been told they'd be back shortly to take care of them -- to hook them up, and it's gone as long as five or six months and we haven't heard from them," Noble said.

Blue Lake Township Supervisor Don Studaven has been one of the most vocally unhappy officials, even attending a county board of commissioners meeting to complain.

"They know I'm ready to come apart here," Studaven said.

He said residents are "thoroughly upset."

One of those is Jim Cordray, who's not only a resident of Blue Lake Township, but one of its primary business owners. Cordray owns Happy Mohawk Canoe Livery and White River Campground, where he said campers increasingly are expecting access to high-speed Internet.

"We were really excited (Arialink) would be the answer for our campers," Cordray said.

But he's been unable to get service from the tower at the township hall. He wound up spending about $6,000 to spread fiber optics to his 230 campsites and on satellite equipment to get satellite Internet for his campers. But that service, for which he pays about $85 per month, can't handle more than a few users at a time without slowing to a crawl.

"We're not competitive because of that," Cordray said. "Closer to town, our competition has access to Wi-Fi and we don't. .... We've heard a lot of complaints about it. ... It's embarrassing. It's been frustrating."

Corday, who also is on the Blue Lake Township Planning Commission, wonders if Arialink just was out to get taxpayers' money.

"They're getting a grant but they aren't using it like I think it was really intended," he said. "Maybe five years from now, they might resolve it. But in the meantime, everybody's hurting."

'Be patient'

More than 600 residents in Muskegon County have been able to sign up with Arialink, according to Signs, and many of those who have it reportedly are happy.

"They're very pleased with it," Moorland Township Supervisor Chuck Krepps said of his residents who, aside from costly satellite Internet, were stuck with dial-up service.

"It's a helluva lot better than what we had," Krepps said, noting some people have reported trouble getting reception through trees or when it rains. "You couldn't do anything. It was very difficult to get information. ... It was time to be changed."

Krepps said his daughter, who is in college, has seen a tremendous benefit from Arialink's service. She no longer has to leave home to do her homework that requires an Internet connection, he said.

"I don't think the people in town realize — the people and teachers have all embraced technology, but what they don't understand is kids don't have it at home," Krepps said. "It puts your kids at a disadvantage."

Laura Moyer, deputy treasurer and deputy clerk for Ravenna Township, agreed that students in her area desperately need an alternative to dial-up Internet. So far, township efforts to get Arialink in their area have fallen short, she said.

"So much of the college kids need to be online to do work," she said. "We can't get anything in a lot of areas."

She said that when the township started calling Arialink in February to inquire about service, they initially were told it would be a month or two.

"Now it's 'before the end of the year,'" she said.

Signs said the company plans to add more technicians so it can hook up more homes. It also continues to add transmitting towers, including one under construction in Twin Lake that should help get service to more customers in Cedar Creek and Holton townships.

He said the hope is to have 1,800 customers logged in by February.

"Be patient, and after we reformulate this project, we'll again hit this thing hard and heavy," Signs said. "And hopefully we'll have more satisfied customers in Muskegon County."